By By BRUCE HIXON – Sports Editor
A little extra effort prevented a productive night from becoming counterproductive for the Brewton American Legion Post 79 baseball team.
Brewton picked up its first win of the season Tuesday when it downed Covington County 8-3 in the front end of a doubleheader played at L.B. Wallace College in Andalusia.
Post 79 completed the sweep after it needed an extra inning for a 9-8 win in game two. The extra frame became necessary after Brewton squandered a 7-0 lead.
Brewton (2-8) never trailed during both games. Post 79 took advantage of some generosity by Covington County hurlers to win game one. Brewton only had five hits, but took advantage of seven walks and a hit batsman.
Five of those free passes came in the top of the first inning where Post 79 scored twice without the aid of a hit. Sean Little, Baxley Raines and Jordan Ball all walked to load the bases. Another walk, this one to Becker Denton, forced in Little. Dannon Lisenby was hit by a pitch that brought in Raines.
Brewton ran its lead to 5-0 with three more runs in the top of the second inning. Clay Simpson walked and scored on an RBI double by Jake Bonds. Raines followed with another two-bagger that plated Bonds. Raines, who took third on a throw home, scored on a wild pitch.
Brewton pitcher Dannon Lisenby allowed just one hit in three scoreless innings of work before Covington County got to him in the fourth. A pair of hit batters and a single loaded the bases. That set up an RBI single, a bases loaded walk and a run-scoring wild pitch that trimmed Brewton's lead to 5-3. It also ended Lisenby's mound stint.
Reliever Corey Flowers, who factored into the wins in both games, stranded the tying runs on base in not only that inning, but also the next inning to earn a save.
Prior to those final three outs Brewton tacked on three more runs to its total in the top of the fifth.
Little and Bonds both walked and moved up a base on a wild pitch. That set up a sacrifice fly by Raines, an RBI single by Ball and another sacrifice fly by Lisenby that made it 8-3.
Post 79 looked as if it would cruise to a sweep when it stormed out to a 7-0 lead in its first three at-bats of game two.
Brewton got two of those runs in the top of the first inning when singles by Little and Bonds set up an RBI single by Ball and a sacrifice fly by Denton.
Simpson reached on an error and scored in the second inning, which took the lead to 3-0. That advantage increased by four runs one inning later. Little singled, Bonds and Raines both walked, Ball came up with his fourth straight hit over two games with an RBI single, Denton hit a sacrifice fly, Simpson hit an RBI single and a wild pitch got another run home.
Covington County chased Brewton starting hurler Jake Bonds in the bottom of the third inning with a double and three straight singles to make it 7-2. While reliever Whitney Qualls escaped the inning with minimal damage, a throwing error after an infield single and a wild pitch that allowed two runs to score trimmed Brewton's lead to just 7-5.
Post 79 scored what looked to be a decisive insurance run in the top of the fifth when Simpson walked, stole second and scored when Will Waters reached on a throwing error.
As it turned out, Post 79 needed that extra run. A walk, an error, a single and another error enabled Covington County to plate three runs against reliever Jordan Ball to tie the game at 8-8.
While defensive miscues enabled Covington County to tie the game in the fifth, it was also a defensive miscue by Covington County that allowed Brewton win the game in the top of the sixth. Little reached on an infield error, stole second and scored all the way from second when Raines beat out an infield single.
As was the case in game two, Flowers closed the door with a perfect bottom of the sixth for his second save of the day.
Brewton, which hosted Montgomery Saturday, is also home Wednesday when it gets a doubleheader rematch against Covington County at 5 p.m.
Game one
Brewton 230 03 - 8 5 0
Covington Co. 000 30 - 3 4 2
Game two
Brewton 214 011 - 9 8 3
Covington Co. 005 030 - 8 9 5